lonely
by kamazoth
Summary: Under odd circumstances they met, one like the other in ways they didn't think possible.


**Disclaimer**: Young Justice/X-Men: Evolution and all related materials are the sole property of DC Comics/Marvel and affiliates. Not mine.  
>Inspired from a prompt on yj anon meme~<p>

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><p><em>[Their] lives had collided without plan or warning, two strangers thrown together by a burst of inexplicable violence...A [man] in boxer shorts and a teenage girl in a blood-soaked blouse, clinging to each other and to hope.<em>

_ -Marley and Me_ by John Grogan.

Dark waves crashed continuously against the rocky shores of Semper Island, a small forsaken piece of land a few hundred miles from New York's beach; Heavy rain beat against the surface itself. At the isle's northern tip stood an old lighthouse, parts of which had been eroded away by sand and time, causing a large hole along it's base through which salty wind would sneak in, race up the stairs and fill the lantern room. "It's gotten dark." A girl's voice drifted down form atop the large light's lens. "Must be night."

She slid off easily, landing into a haunch, thus cushioning the impact. Her dark brown hair whipped around with the wind, stinging the skin on her face whenever it hit but she paid little attention to it as she descended the stairs, hoping she'd out-waited the men that had been hunting her. Her boots made little noise in contrasts to the thunder and rain, but she moved carefully all the same. As a precaution, she extended the claws in her hands, biting her lip against the pain as she did so.

From within the pitch darkness, a male voice resonated. "Hello?"

She froze. "Anyone there?" The voice intensified, threatening to collapse the already weak walls of the tower. "Robin? Aqualad!" There was a low growl. "Answer me!"

"Shut up!" She called back, dismissing this voice's owner as a direct threat, but any noise HYDRA picks up is investigated, and this isn't the place to get cornered. Not when her options are capture or drowning. "Just be quite!" She whispered and sat at the stairs, trying to think of a way to explain the need for silence but finding it difficult as the stairs began to shake under another's weight.

"Who are you?" There was an edge to his voice. "Where is my team?" He gripped the front of her jacket and pulled her to her feet. Despite being on a higher stair than him, the top of her head barely brushed his chin. "Shh!" She, in turn, grabbed the collar of his shirt and pulled him down. "Listen, I'm hiding here and I _don't_ need a little boy like you getting me caught!" She promptly pushed him away but only succeeded in making him sway. Strange...Was he a mutant too?

"Who's chasing you?" He whispered, finally understanding her reasoning, but the question was important. The answer more-so.

The whole reason the team was on this island was as an investigation, as intelligence speculated this island as a mid-way point in some smuggling cases. They had gotten separated, obviously, after an ambush attack by men they weren't expecting.

"It's not your concern." She assured him, glad that the rain was beginning to lift and that the full moon was now lighting up the night. "Are you alright?" He gestured at her jacket, from where he previously lifted her. Under the moon's light, he could see a splash of red against the previously white leather. "Tsk." She brushed at it, noticing her still exposed claws a moment before retracting them. "It's not mine." She said, looking at him now, searching for any reaction to the metal that slipped into her body, but there was none.

She then realized he wasn't in good shape either. His black t-shirt was ripped in places and he had a smear of blood on his cheek. "And that?" She pointed. He simply shrugged. "Not mine."

They stood like that for a while, not speaking but studying the other. By scent, she knew him to be unaffiliated with those that sought her, and by body language, she noted he wasn't a threat at all. "X-23." She finally spoke, tucking a bit of hair back as she descended the stairs again. "What?" He looked after her, without the rain, his voice came out much louder than he meant it. She didn't flinch.

"X-23." She repeated once he pulled up next to her, walking beside her. "That's my name."

He crossed his arms over his chest. "That's not a real name." She glanced at him. "Oh, and what's _your's_?"

He looked away, it seemed, almost in shame. "...Superboy."

"Ha!" She grinned. "Super_boy_? Like Super_man_?" In the light, he _did_ seem similar. "Yes, Super_boy_!" He looked at her, and she at him. "You're freakishly tall," She commented as she walked out onto the fields surrounding the lighthouse.

"Are you his kid or something?" She had an edge to her voice, but she asked out of true curiosity. "Or something." He responded, conflict in his voice. "You ever hear of Cadmus...?"

Her breath hitched, "They're in genetics, right?" She felt herself worrying.

"They made me." Superboy admitted, his shoulders falling. "From Superman."

"Or something..." She mumbled to herself. "Why would...they clone- You're a clone, right? That's what you said?" Superboy nodded. "Why would both HYDRA _and_ Cadmus invest in cloning superheroes...?" She bit on her lip as she thought.

"HYDRA?" Superboy grabbed X-23's shoulders and pulled her around to face him. "Yes..." She mumbled. "HYDRA's in the cloning game too." She gestured to herself. "I was created by them."

Superboy balked.

Her jacket was pulled into his grip, the fabric tightening on her small body. "Superboy?" She looked up at him, at the anger in his face. "Superboy?" She grabbed on to his wrists but froze when a scent drifted by her nose. It was too familiar and just as hated. "Superboy! We have to run!" She urged, unzipping her jacket and shimmying out of the sleeves just in time for a blast to hit Superboy's back. "Superboy!" She jumped back as he slumped forward.

"Rrrrraaah!" He let out an animalistic roar, ripped the remnants of his shirt from his torso and threw them to the ground along with X-23's jacket. "Superboy!" She called after him, watching as he blindly ran for HYDRA's soldiers, suffering blast after blast but not slowing down.

"Superboy!" X-23 ran after him, unsure she could calm him down but damned if she was going to sit by and have a follow clone fight her battle.

They were human, she knew, and winced as Superboy's fist collided with a man's chest, the impact sent him back against two men. The stayed down, possibly from injury or...There was no time to speculate, Superboy was upon his next opponents, gripping their guns before tossing them aside like a couple of rag dolls.

"Superboy!" A new voice rang through the chaos and a green girl descended from the sky. She landed by Superboy, her hands already on his arms. "Please, stop!" She cried, worry clear on her face.

Ignoring them, X-23 kicked away a man, her claws having destroyed his weapon just before. She briefly thought to kill him, to end this cycle now, but another voice, another male, intercepted. His skin was a few shades darker than her own, she noted, as he rested his hand on her forearm. "You don't need to fight anymore." He assured her, and something in his voice made her believe him.

All around her she saw a group of teenagers emerging victorious over the trained HYDRA men...But then again, these were humans, and these teens didn't seem to be. "Who are you?" She asked, her defenses up again, even with HYDRA's threat subsided. This group didn't sit well with her either. "We're Young Justice." The guy who comforted her stepped up, clearly the leader. "I'm Aqualad." He gestured towards the others in turn. "Robin,"the athletic gymnast. "Kid Flash," the speedster. "Artemis," the archer, and "Miss Martian," the...martian...

"Will Superboy be ok?" She asked, watching as he was lead away by both girls and Robin. "He will be." Aqualad promised and offered her a ride home, an offer she took only so she could watch over the sleeping super teen.

It would be a few hours before Superboy woke up, finding himself in his room, Miss Martian napping at his desk, possibly looking out for him. He sighed. He'd lost control...His anger, he knew, made him berserk, but it wasn't often he found someone so similar, someone so small that needed to run away because she could not nullify the danger on her own.

He stood up, still in his grungy jeans and without a shirt he went out in to the base, looking for her even though he knew she'd never be allowed in.

"Aqualad!" He called out as the said teen walked by. "Where is she? X-23?"

Aqualad smiled at the other. "She just left, said she had some business a few hours south, in New York." Superboy visibly faltered, "What business?"

"I don't know." Aqualad admitted. "Canary took her, they shouldn't be long."

Obviously, Aqualad's definition of 'shouldn't be long' was quite different from Superboy's own. It would be almost dawn, at eight hours, before he saw or heard from either woman, but when he did, he was glad that it was both that came back.

"X-23?" He stood from the couch, the television in front of him full of static snow before he switched it off. "What were you watching?" She asked, her voice muffled by her helmet as she slipped it off. "Not important. Why'd you leave?" She bit her lip, a small smile tugging at the corners of her lips. He looked to Black Canary for the answer when X-23 didn't speak right away but she threw her hands up as if to say she had no part in this discussion.

"Relax." X-23 said after a moment. She placed her helmet down on the kitchen's bar before walking to the lounge. "I _do_ have a home, you know." She flopped down on the couch beside Superboy, waving after Black Canary as she dismissed herself and went further into the base. "You do?" He felt stupid even thinking she didn't...But, she was like him, a clone of someone else, a genetically created being with no family. "I needed to check on some things, needed to ask permission." She stretched and popped a few bones. "Logan," She began, "The guy I'm cloned from...He's been watching out for me."

Superboy looked away from her, unsure how to proceed. "Oh." He said.

"I wanted to be sure he knew where I was." Superboy nodded as she spoke suddenly losing some of that kinship he'd felt earlier. "He's a good guy, then? Logan?" He asked.

"Depends on your definition." She smiled. "But yeah, he's been good to me." She sighed. "But we're not family. There's no such thing for us, despite how hard we try to pretend."

"I-" Superboy started. "I have an opposite relationship with my...The guy I was..."

"Superman?" Her eyes grew wide in disbelief. Superman was way more moral than Logan, how could Superboy and him _not_ have _the_ best relationship?

"It's complicated." He sighed, and she didn't press the issue further.

"I'll be leaving soon." She said after a moment. "Possibly a few days."

Superboy nodded.

"Maybe in that time we can train together? Black Canary mentioned you were good at close combat."

Superboy looked at her, unsure if he heard her right. "Really? She said that?"

She nodded. "Says you have great potential." Superboy smiled, his hurt washing away as they sat without talking, the silence never bothersome nor stifling.


End file.
